Generally, testing radio frequency (RF) communication devices is performed with the use of dedicated testing devices. For example, a first testing device may be used to generate an RF test signal, which may be injected into or transmitted to the communication device. A second testing device may be used to analyze resulting RF signals, as the test signal is processed by the communication device. These tests may be performed during production of the communication device as well as performed post-production.
In many cases, the use of such testing devices increases the costs and the testing time of the communication device. Dedicated testing devices may be purchased by users as well as manufacturers and service technicians to perform regularly scheduled tests or for quality control during production. Further, the use of dedicated testing devices may increase the complexity of regularly scheduled testing. For example, such tests cannot be performed when one or more of the testing devices are not available.
In recent years, communication devices have been integrated with or embedded within other consumer products (e.g., smartphones, tablet computing devices, utility meters, appliances, vehicles, etc.). In some cases, testing the communication devices while they are integrated or embedded can be problematic, based on limited accessibility to the portions of the communication device to be tested.